EORDAEA
EORDAEA (
Ἐορδαία,
Ἐορδία: Eth.
Ἐορδός, Eth.
Ἐορδαῖος,Eordaeus, Eth.
Eordensis), a subdivision of Upper Macedonia, the inhabitants of which were dispossessed, by the Temenid princes, of their original seats, which, however, still continued to bear the name of Eordia. (
Thuc. 2.99.) From the
[p. 1.830]remark of Polybius (ap.
Strab. vii. p.323), that the Candavian way passed through the country of the Eordaei in proceeding from that of the Lyncestae to Edessa, and from the description of the march of Perseus from Citium in Lower Macedonia through Eordaea into Elimeia, and to the Haliacmon (
Liv. 42.53), we obtain a knowledge of the exact situation of this district.
It appears to have extended along the W. side of Mount Bermius, comprehending
O´strovo and
Katránitza to the N.,
Saríghioli in the middle, and to the S. the plains of
Djumá Budja and
Karaiánni, as far as the ridges near
Kózani and the
Klisura of
Síatista, which seem to be the natural boundaries of the province.
The only Eordaean town noticed in history is
PHYSCA (
Φύσκα,
Φύσκας, Ptol. 3.13.36) or
PHYSCUS (
Φύσκος, Steph. B. sub voce of which Thucydides (
2.99) remarks that near it there still remained some of the descendants of the Eordaei, who had been expelled from all other parts of their original settlements by the Teminidae.
But there is some reason to add to this name those of BEGORRA and
GALADRAE as Eordaean towns.
The central and otherwise advantageous position of the former of these places, leads to the conjecture that it may have been the city Eordaea (Hierocl.) of later times. As Lycophron (1342, 1444) couples Galadrae with the land of the Eordaei, and as Stephanus (s. v.) attributes that town to Pieria, it might best. be sought for at the S. extremity of Eordaea towards the-Haliacmon. and the frontiers of Pieria, its territory having consisted chiefly, perhaps, of the plains of
Budjá and
Djumá. If Galadrae was in the S. part of the province, Begorra in the middle, Physca was probably to the N. about
Katránitza, towards the mountains of the Bermian range, a position which was most likely to have preserved the ancient race. Ptolemy (
3.13.36) classes three towns under the Eordaei of Macedonia; but, as Scampa is one of them, he has evidently confounded the Eordaei with the Eordeti of Illyria. (Leake,
Northern Greece, vol iii. p. 316.)
[
E.B.J]
